Republicans are not ready to give up the fight to take away your healthcare. They have tried the failed strategy of repealing the entire Obamacare bill I’ve 40 tines already, and now, they have a plan that just might achieve their ultimate goal of allowing Americans to die because they have no healthcare.
Their plan? To make Obamacare also called The Affordable Care Act, unaffordable. Their plan is to repeal a provision in the law that keeps premiums low, thus raising the oremiums.
The provision — called “risk corridors,” but dubbed the “Obamacare bailout” by the law’s opponents — seeks to stabilize costs by creating a pot of money that takes in funds from insurers who enroll healthier customers and uses it to pay out insurers who enroll sicker customers. It’s a safety valve that sunsets after 2016. The repeal push is clever messaging in a sense because it lets conservatives snatch the mantle of populism from liberals against wealthy insurance companies. But it comes with its share of dangers, too.
Last November, as TPM reported, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced legislation to repeal this provision. Since then it has picked up 13 Republican co-sponsors, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and spawned two companion bills in the House, which are supported by numerous Republicans. The idea has been championed by conservative lobbying groups like the Club For Growth and Heritage Action, and pushed by writers including Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post, Ramesh Punnuru in Bloomberg View and Deroy Murdock in National Review.
The conservatives are open about the end goal: collapse Obamacare by causing higher premiums on the law’s marketplaces for the newly insured, which progressive experts who support Obamacare agree may occur if the provision is scrapped.
Justin Bieber has been arrested for allegedly drag racing in Miami Beach, Fla., and driving under the influence, the Miami Beach Police Department confirmed in a press conference.
Police said 19-year-old Bieber was arrested Thursday just after 4 a.m. on Pine Tree Drive and 26th Street. According to police, he was driving a yellow Lamborghini while under the influence of marijuana, prescription pills and alcohol.
Officers saw two cars racing at 4:09 a.m. Thursday, with two vehicles apparently used to block the area off, Miami Dade Police Chief Raymond A. Martinez said during a press conference. He says the second car was a red Ferrari, and that driver, R&B singer Khalil Sharief, was also arrested. Both cars were towed.
The singer was booked at Miami-Dade County jail, the Miami-Dade County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed to FOX411. His bail was set at $2,500, and the star’s mug shot was released, showing him smiling for camera.
The pop star was stopped by police because his car was going nearly double the speed limit in the residential area, and when a police officer approached the singer the officer “smelled a strong odor of alcoholic beverage” coming from the Biebs’ car, Martinez told reporters. According to the arrest report, Bieber’s eyes were bloodshot and he had “a stuper [sic] look on his face.”
After scoffing at the allegations surrounding New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) administration just two weeks ago, Daily Show host Jon Stewart changed his mind after hearing about Christie’s administration was accused of using Hurricane Sandy relief funds as political capital.
“Oh sh*t,” Stewart giggled. “That is some old-school New Jersey corruption: ‘Hey, nice city. Be a shame if anything happened to it.”
At the same time, Stewart was initially non-plussed by the federal lawsuit brought against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and his wife, Christine, for allegedly taking thousands of dollars in gifts and other favors from the head of a local dietary company.
“We’ve all seen this before,” he scoffed. “It explains the state’s new motto: ‘Virginia is for 10,000 milligrams of Niacin.’”
It wasn’t until he heard that the gifts included a lakehouse vacation — including the use of a $190,000 Ferrari — and 30 boxes of “an expensive anti-inflammatory” that Stewart perked up.
“Now you’re talking my language,” he woofed. “Thirty boxes of top-shelf, black-label anti-inflammatories. How does that backroom deal go down?”
Watch Stewart take on the dual controversies, as posted online on Wednesday, below.
His previous piece of “art” of a discolored American flag sold for $100,099.99 on ebay, so Zimmerman is trying his luck again.
This time, the object of his attention is none other than the prosecutor that brought the case against the neighborhood watch turned murderer himself, Angela Corey.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Zimmerman’s brother introduced the piece to the world, promising that sales information will follow soon. Yay!
“Very proud to introduce @TherealGeorgeZ’s latest…’Angie’. Sale info & details available tomorrow,”
Who will be the next sicko to fork over big bucks for George’s photoshop artwork? Well find out shortly.
Bill Cosby has a new project up his sleeves for all you TV fans that miss your weekly dose of Cliff, Clair and the entire Huxtable gang.
While it’s not exactly the “Cosby Show,” the iconic entertainer plans to make a comeback on NBC, three decades later, with a new multi-generational family sitcom. According to Deadline, Cosby will star in the half-hour comedy and reunite with “Cosby Show” producer Tom Werner.
“The new comedy will be built around Cosby, who will play the patriarch of a multi-generational family and, like the comedian’s previous family sitcoms – “Cosby Show” and “Cosby” on CBS — “The Cosby Show” will channel his take on marriage and parenting,” Deadline reports. “Cosby and Werner are meeting with writers on the project, which has been put on off-season development track.”
Cosby shared details about the upcoming show with Yahoo TV in November. “They would like to see a married couple that acts like they love each other, warts and all, children who respect the parenting, and the comedy of people who make mistakes. Warmth and forgiveness,” he said. “So I hope to get that opportunity, and I will deliver the best of Cosby.”
And to add icing on the cake, the 76-year-old star is also working to reboot his popular 1970’s animated series “Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids.”
McConnell is fighting for his political life. He is in the midst of a re-election campaign in Kentucky and that campaign is not going according to plan. According to a PPP poll, McConnell is in a virtual tie with his Democratic Challenger Allison Grimes.
Mitch is therefore looking for all the help he can find and these days and Kentucky is loving Obamacare, they just call it by another name. So guess what Mitch’s new plan is… be the proponent for Obamacare… um Obamacare by another name that is.
Here is the latest ad the McConnell campaign put out. Notice there is absolutely no mention of his countless oppositions to healthcare.
After the remains found in Queens were confirmed to be that of Avonte, the lawyer representing the family said that he will file a lawsuit against the city of New York on the family’s behalf.
Attorney David Perecman said he will file the legal claim on behalf of the family.
He said Avonte’s mother, Vanessa Fontaine, is inconsolable.
The family first said in October that it would sue the city over claims he was not supervised properly.
Avonte vanished on October 4 after leaving the Center Boulevard School in Long Island City, Queens.
The autistic teen, who was unable to communicate through speaking, was the subject of massive search effort.
Avonte’s remains were not intact when they were discovered on the banks of the East River over the span of a few days.
A teenage girl shooting photos in a Queens park noticed a left arm, leading to the discovery of legs and lower torso.
A part of a skull was also later recovered.
Authorities said at the time that clothing consistent with what Avonte was wearing when he went missing was also found.
The medical examiner said on Tuesday that the cause and manner of death are pending further study.
The reaction from Conservative con men over Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying that extremist conservative politicians would have no home in New York has been swift and very funny.
Sean Hannity leads the pack of confidence men and their faux outrage by saying he’s sick of paying NY taxes and he’s going to pull out and leave NY for maybe the very hot and wet state of Florida. The poor baby’s fee-fees were hurt.
But that hasn’t placated outspoken conservatives like radio host and Fox NewserSean Hannity, who told his radio audience on Monday afternoon that he plans to flee for Florida or Texas.
“I want you to know that and I can’t wait to get out of here,” he said. “I really can’t. I don’t want to pay their 10 percent state tax anymore. I live in the second-highest property-taxed county in the entire country in Nassau County. I can’t wait to sell my house to somebody who wants it. I can’t wait to pay no state income tax down in Florida or Texas.”
He added: “I haven’t decided yet, but I’m leaning Florida because I like the water and I like to fish.” [Note: Hannity did once declare he loves Panama City.]
The radio host then addressed the New York governor directly: “Gov. Cuomo, I’m going to leave and I’m taking all of my money with me – every single solitary penny.”
I guess he’s having a hard time living off his twenty million dollar Fox News salary. I’m very confident saying this. New York would be a better place without a fool like Hannity.
Chris Christie and his administration is surrounded by scandals, and Christie’s administration would love nothing better than having everyone just leave them alone. The good “news” folks at Fox has basically granted them that wish, but MSNBC has not yet read the memo.
Take Rachel Maddow for example. Before Bridge-Gate became a household name, Maddow was one of the few reporters trying to get to the bottom of why lanes on the busiest bridge in the world suddenly closed in early September 2013.
Questions were being asked. Of course, answers never materialized. So Maddow and her crew at MSNBC began digging. One of the theories they came up with was, in addition to political retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee, the lanes were closed because Christie was angry with Jersey Senate Democrats. The digging by Maddow revealed that a day before the order was given to close the lanes in Fort Lee, Governor Christie had a press conference where he appeared very, very angry with Senate Democrats. So angry was he, that the governor referred to his political adversaries as “animals.”
Maddow theorized that after calling the Democrats animals, it was easier to understand the order to close the lanes, considering that the head of the Senate Democrats represented Fort Lee.
The theory apparently made too much sense for Christie and his gang. They sent a letter to MSNBC accusing the network of asking too many questions. They criticized Maddow’s theory and a more recent accusation by Hoboken’s Mayor, Dawn Zimmer, when she went on MSNBC on Saturday to tell the world that her city also fell prey to Christie’s political bullying.
Maddow of course, refused to stay quiet for Christie. On her show yesterday, Maddow responded… with more questions.
“The question of why matters. Governor Christie’s office has tried to shame people for asking what the reason might plausibly have been. But they have offered zero explanation of their own.”
“Yes, it is pure speculation. It has always been presented as such by us, and by me. We presented that theory as a way to get at the most important and, as yet, totally unexplained question still at the center of this unfolding scandal which is, Why? What is the plausible explanation for this? Why did whoever ordered those lanes closed order those lanes closed?”
The only info we got from Christie so far was that he fired a member of his administration for sending the message that started the while Bridge-Gate scandal. And he emphasized that he did not ask her why she closed the lanes.
Strange.
“Maybe he was just mad, but we still don’t know if Governor Christie is interested in the explanation now. So far, nobody on his side has offered any explanation whatsoever as to why this happened, what was the trigger. And until that question is answered, people are going to keep asking what the answer might plausibly be, even if Governor Christie’s spokesman prefers that we all stop doing that and attacks us when we do.”
The tale as told by the Pasco County sheriff’s office, a witness and the victim’s friends is of a fatal clash between two Navy veterans who happened to sit near each other in a movie theater. A woman would later come forward and tell prosecutors that two weeks earlier at the movies, Mr. Reeves had menaced her for texting as well, describing a man in sharp contrast to the generous and kind neighbor the people on his block describe.
“What’s he bringing a gun to the movies for?” said Charles Cummings, a 68-year-old former Marine who was in the row ahead of Mr. Reeves and described him as “aggressive.” “That’s a happy place. No one is going to kill you there, except that he did go there and kill someone.”
“Lone Survivor,” a movie about a covert Navy SEAL operation, was set to start at 1:20 that Monday afternoon. The lights had dimmed halfway. The previews were being shown while stragglers made their way to the plush seats.
Only about 25 people attended the showing, among them a nurse and an off-duty sheriff’s deputy.
In front of Mr. Reeves was Chad W. Oulson, 43, of Land O’ Lakes, Fla., a finance manager at a local motorcycle dealership. Mr. Oulson was a 6-foot 4-inch motorcycle enthusiast, whose 22-month-old daughter, Alexis, was at home with a babysitter and not feeling well. So Mr. Oulson defied technology etiquette and texted the sitter. The light from his phone was visible in the semidarkness.
Mr. Cummings remembers Mr. Reeves kicking the seat in front of him.
Mr. Reeves asked Mr. Oulson to quit texting. Mr. Oulson kept at it, explaining that he was just communicating about a preschooler. Mr. Reeves left in a huff to get a manager, but he returned alone.
Mr. Oulson complained about being tattled on, and the two men exchanged more words. The words got louder. That’s when Mr. Oulson made what would turn out to be a fatal move.
“He stood up,” said Joseph Detrapani, a friend of Mr. Oulson’s, who heard the story later. “That was it.”
This was a boutique theater with rows of large seats that are elevated from one another, with a foot and a half of legroom between them. Mr. Oulson turned to face Mr. Reeves and swung the popcorn bag at his side; kernels struck Mr. Reeves’ face.
Mr. Reeves, a co-founder of the Tampa Police Department’s first tactical response team, reacted. Struck in the face by what he told police was a “dark object,” he reached for his .380 and fired, just as his son, Matthew, also a police officer, entered the theater. Mr. Oulson’s wife, Nicole, had placed her hand on her husband’s chest and was struck in the finger.
Mr. Oulson was hit once in the chest. The people nearby laid him down on the floor and rested his head on Mr. Cummings’s foot. Mr. Cummings’s son called for help while the nurse in the audience rendered aid.
Police said Mr. Reeves sat down calmly, put the gun on his lap and stared ahead. A sheriff’s deputy from nearby Sumter County who saw the muzzle flash snatched the weapon from him. Police said Mr. Reeves resisted at first and then acquiesced.
The gun was jammed.
At 1:30, a call came over the police radio that someone had been shot at the theater. The police feared the worst and prepared to respond to mass casualties.
“When you hear this come over the radio, I can tell you, your heart drops,” Sheriff Chris Nocco told reporters.
Mr. Reeves’s clothes were taken for evidence, and he was taken to jail in a hazmat suit. TV cameras showed him walking up to the police cruiser as if it were his own, with no officer escorting him close behind.
His lawyer, Richard Escobar, said Mr. Reeves, who is charged with second-degree murder, acted in self-defense. He suggested that Mr. Reeves was hit in the face with something other than popcorn, and had every right to defend himself with deadly force.
Joshua Black, a Republican candidate for Florida’s state House of Representatives, tweeted Monday that President Obama should be hanged for treason.
Black, a taxi driver and former street evangelist, is challenging state Rep. Dwight Dudley (D) this November in the St. Petersburg-based 68th district. On his campaign website, he complains that “Republicans have a serious communication problem. Everything we say sounds like spears.”
A California woman — who says she was sexually abused for years by her basketball coach — confronts her alleged attacker in a damning YouTube video that quickly led to the educator’s resignation.
“Everything was stolen from me,” Jaime Carrillo, now a mother of two, told KTLA5 as she choked back tears. “I want her to be in jail and to pay for what she’s done.”
Carrillo, 28, has come forward to expose a relationship Andrea Cardosa allegedly started when the girl was just 12 — and stretched throughout her teenage years, according to reports.
Carrillo recorded her phone confrontation with Cardosa — who had since risen to the ranks of assistant principal at Alhambra High School — in a video that was sent to school officials.
Cardosa resigned from her post Friday — the same day the video was posted — and has gone into relative hiding since she was exposed online.
Alhambra High School said in a statement obtained by The News that her resignation came after officials saw the YouTube video and confronted her about its disturbing allegations on January 17.
“At the conclusion of that interview the Alhambra High School administrator tendered her resignation,” the school said. “Alhambra Police department will be handing this matter over to the jurisdiction of the appropriate police Department.”
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